Finishing Research for This Year for Undiscovered

The race from the government Commission for Unemployed Persons said that during this year in Kosovo excavations have been conducted at several locations, such as those at the Muslim cemetery in northern Mitrovica, in Surigana, Paula of Istog, Stanaj of Gjilan, Prizren and Rahovec.

The race told Radio Free Europe, that from excavations made over the past few months, more than ten people have been found.

Out of a total of nine locations in which it was dug, eight of them have resulted in the discovery and exhumation of the mortar remains of at least 11 people, victims of war”, Gara said.

The identity of the victims found in 2020 has not yet been confirmed.

On Friday, two persons' mortore remains have been found in the Prizren and Rahovec municipality.

“Informs for the last two cases were presented by citizens. It is therefore important that the information available to citizens inform competent authorities”, Gara said.

On the other hand, Bajram Qerkeyni, head of the Association “Parents' Office”, the association of family members of missing persons in Kosovo, tells Radio Free Europe, that authorities are not doing enough to find missing persons from Kosovo. According to him, the respective mechanisms are failing to implement the envisioned plans.

The future “must have a plan that can be realised. They say, for instance, we can't do more in the Mitrovica region... let's write it down, let's say we'll work only in one location, not make promises for several countries. Twenty years of playing games, on this side and on that side, and on either side, not doing so is a big sin. It means that neither local nor international are serious at all. Why do the internationals have a problem with our plan when there is no decision that is said here [in a location] we will permanently end up digging”, Qericin said.

Since the coming to power, Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti has declared that resolving the fate of persons found by the 1998-99 war is a key issue in the process of normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

The site considers that the fate of the missing has never been considered a priority. According to him, the issue has even been misused by politics and politicians.

What I've warned you most is that they've introduced and politicised this issue more for the political position than the dawn of the blind. If the internationals wanted it, the weather would have finished this”, Qerkeyn said.

Since 2001 and so far, on Serbia's territory, in four locations mass cemeterys have been found with 941 Albanian troops killed in Kosovo.

The mass cemetery in Kizhevac is the fifth mass cemetery with Albanian victims discovered on Serbia's territory. It's a mine where stones and debris have been thrown for years.

Its discovery was made thanks to satellite images of the American Army, which were obtained through the International Red Cross.

During excavations at Kizevac's mass cemetery in Race, Serbia, authorities have so far made the withdrawal of the mortar remains of four to five people.

Arsim Gerjaliu, director of the Kosovo Institute of Legal Medicine, has announced that official research in this mass cemetery has been suspended and is expected to continue in next year.

We have searched Kozareva in Serbia, where we have opened test channels and resulted in negative findings. We have examined the terrain and suspicion at the Sinenica Headquarters and the normal finding of mortar waste after five years in Kizhevac, which is the case that we will continue the work in the spring, because the main enemy in this direction has the atmospheric conditions”, Gerjaliu said.

After the end of the war in Kosovo in 1999 resulted in about 6 thousand and 500 missing persons. Since that time exhumations were carried out at mass cemeterys in Kosovo and Serbia, and up until now about 70 percent of those missing have been found. According to authorities in Kosovo, some 1,600 people, mostly Albanians, still turn out to be undiscovered.